Seoul court orders ballot box preservation after election disruptions

A Seoul court Tuesday ordered the preservation of ballot boxes and surveillance footage from a polling station at the center of disputed ballot shortages that disrupted voting at more than a dozen locations during last week's local elections.

The ruling represents an early legal step in a widening dispute over South Korean election administration, as demonstrators enter a fifth consecutive day of protests outside a Seoul vote-counting center demanding a full rerun of the local elections.

Seoul Eastern District Court accepted a petition from Kim Jung-chul, a Supreme Council member of the Reform Party, and issued a preservation order covering four items from polling station No. 2 in the Jamsil 7 neighborhood of Songpa Ward, including ballot boxes and surveillance camera footage, The Korea Times reported.

The court rejected related petitions seeking to preserve ballot boxes that had been transferred to a separate vote-counting facility, according to the newspaper.

Ballot shortages were reported at more than a dozen polling stations across Seoul during last week's local elections, with most incidents concentrated in Songpa Ward in southern Seoul. The shortages forced temporary suspensions of voting at the affected locations, The Korea Times reported.

Protesters have gathered outside a Seoul vote-counting facility for five straight days, calling for local election results to be invalidated and a new vote held, the newspaper reported.

Protesters have staged five consecutive days of demonstrations outside a Seoul vote-counting facility as legal proceedings related to the ballot shortage dispute remain in their earliest stages, The Korea Times reported.